Tag Archives: literature
Review: Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave
When war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to give it a miss – until his flatmate Alistair unexpectedly enlists, and the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When […]
Review: The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads: Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though […]
Review: Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
It’s been a long time since a book has affected me so deeply, in both a literary and personal sense. It’s going to be hard to fathom my reaction to Vonnegut’s words (ironically most probably echoing Vonnegut’s failure to fathom the war which is transparent through his words) but I’ll do my best. I lived […]
Review: Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
I don’t know if you can review a book you’ve read twice and you really love, but I’d nonetheless like to share my delight in re-reading one of my favourite Austen novels. I picked up this beautiful edition at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath in something of a Regency-induced dream and promptly decided that […]
Review: Uprooted, Naomi Novik
Agnieszka loves her village, set deep in a peaceful valley. But the nearby enchanted forest casts a shadow over her home. Many have been lost to the Wood and none return unchanged. The villagers depend on an ageless wizard, the Dragon, to protect them from the forest’s dark magic. However, his help comes at a […]
The Diary of an Unpublished Author #6
Dear Diary, Today I’m going to talk about motivation. Perhaps it will start off about writing, but I think it will end up being about life, as inevitably everything does. The two are intrinsically linked, you see – writing and life. In many ways my writing is my life; it is, quite honestly, the most important […]
Review: The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy
I embarked upon my fourth Hardy novel in the wake of another viewing of the wonderful Far from the Madding Crowd, hoping there might be a little happiness in it for its characters – praying for more Bathsheba than Tess. The Woodlanders is marvellously Hardy-esque and in that there is something comfortable and familiar. There is the usual […]
Review: How to be a Heroine, Samantha Ellis
The third book on my Summer Reading List. On a pilgrimage to Wuthering Heights, Samantha Ellis found herself arguing with her best friend about which heroine was best: Jane Eyre or Cathy Earnshaw. She was all for wild, passionate Cathy; but her friend found Cathy silly, a snob, while courageous Jane makes her own way. […]
Review: The Chimes, Anna Smaill
The second book in my Summer Reading List. A boy stands on the roadside on his way to London, alone in the rain. No memories, beyond what he can hold in his hands at any given moment. No directions, as written words have long since been forbidden. No parents – just a melody that tugs […]
The Diary of an Unpublished Author #4
Dear Diary, Let’s talk for a moment about rejection. What does it mean, exactly, to have somebody tell you that your work isn’t good enough? That it’s not exactly what they were looking for, that they don’t feel passionately enough about it to offer you representation. That they couldn’t find an agent who felt strongly […]
Bethany Wren 